His award was for “most conspicuous bravery”. On September 18, 1918, he was in charge of an advancing section of the 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment which was held up by ferocious machine-gun fire as it attacked outposts of the formidable German defensive structure, the Hindenburg Line.

The official citation reports that, after observing how two enemy machine-gun teams were pinning down his men, Lewis “crawled forward, single-handed, and successfully bombed the guns, and by rifle fire later caused the whole team to surrender, thereby enabling the whole line to advance”.

This in itself was bravery of the very highest order, but Lewis was not finished. The London Gazette reported that three days later he “again displayed great powers of command”. Unfortunately, though, “having rushed his company through the enemy barrage” he was killed “while getting his men under cover from heavy machine-gun fire.”

Throughout this intense action at Ronssoy, Lewis displayed “a splendid disregard of danger, and his leadership at a critical period was beyond all praise”.

By any standards, Lewis’s actions at Ronssoy were remarkably brave, and he made the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect his men. But the fact that his heroism is not noted at all in Neath, or indeed anywhere else in Wales, adds an even greater level of interest and poignancy to his story.

Although Allan Lewis was born just over the border with England, at Whitney-on-Wye, he was in many ways a Welshman, and indeed he attempted to learn to speak Welsh.

One of nine children, Lewis left school at the age of 13 to work on the land, eventually becoming a gardener at Truscoed House near Llandeilo.

He always enjoyed working with machines, though, and this led to him becoming an employee of the Great Western Railway.

He moved to Neath, where he lodged at 17 Creswell Road, and, after a period as a conductor, he drove a GWR bus on the Pontardawe route.

So, with such strong roots in Neath, why does he remain a forgotten hero, even in his adopted home town?

Tireless research and campaigning by Vyvyan Smith over the past 40 years provides us with an explanation.

Lewis joined the army in Neath in March 1915 and in doing so he left his job without seeking official permission from his employer.

This seems to have been too much to bear for the then managers of the GWR, and they long harboured a small-minded grudge against the man who was to die seven weeks before the end of the war.

Indeed, not even the award of a posthumous VC served to change their minds.

Other railway employees who won a VC had locomotives named after them, but this honour was never afforded to Lewis by GWR, as officialdom continued to treat him as a pariah.

This extraordinary attitude clearly affected perceptions of Lewis in Neath, where the authorities regarded him as “trouble”, and because of this they did not include his name on any war memorial.

Surely, it is now time to right this wrong. Let us hope that people in Neath recognise Allan Leonard Lewis VC for what he was. A true Welsh hero who gave his life for his country.

Huw Bowen is Professor of Modern History at Swansea University. He is indebted to Mr Vyvyan Smith without whose help this article could not have been written.